Daily Archives: September 20, 2009
The Mets defeated the Nationals, 6-2, in Citi Field today.
For a full recap and boxscore, click here.
The Least You Should Know:
John Maine looked good, holding the Nats hitless through four innings. He got out of a two-hit jam in the fifth and finished the day with his first win since May.
Daniel Murphy provided the offensive firepower with a triple, a double and two RBIs. Angel Pagan had three hits, and Carlos Beltran and Luis Castillo added two apiece.
Misc., Etc., and other Stuff:
Maine only struck out one batter, but he yielded pop-up after pop-up. He might have been a little gassed by the fifth, though, and left after 75 pitches.
Josh Thole had a single and two walks in the game. Keith Hernandez noted that Thole seemed to be getting better at laying off the high fastballs he’s had trouble with early in his MLB career.
Wilson Valdez flashed his strong arm on a nice play in the hole, plus added a two-run triple later in the game. The guys in the booth pointed out that Valdez has made a good case for returning next season as the backup middle infielder, thanks to his strong defense at short.
I appreciate that Gary Cohen was providing constant Jets updates throughout the game, but a) some of us were trying to juggle the games on TiVo and b) it’s just a tiny bit depressing.
Elmer Dessens has quietly been pretty good for the Mets.
The game ball:
Goes to Maine, for rewarding all of us who watched the Mets instead of or in addition to football with a well-pitched win.
Tagged News |
The Mets close out their series with the Nationals this afternoon at Citi Field.
Angel Pagan will lead off, followed in order by Luis Castillo, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Daniel Murphy, Jeff Francoeur, Josh Thole, and Wilson Valdez.
John Maine (5-5, 4.45 ERA) will start for the Mets. Maine is making his second start since returning from the disabled list today after lasting three innings against the Phillies last Sunday. Maine’s last start before he went on the disabled list was against these Nationals in Washington, and he allowed seven runs on six hits in just four innings back on June 6.
Garrett Mock (3-8, 5.89 ERA) will start for the Nationals. Since returning to the Major Leagues on July 19, Mock is 3-6 with a 5.67 ERA in 12 starts. He did face the Mets back on April 26 in a relief appearance, and pitched a scoreless inning.
During yesterday’s 3-2 win, Tim Redding lasted into the eighth inning and allowed just one earned run on four hits.
Redding retired the first nine batters of the game, and had faced the minimum through five innings.
Since returning to the starting rotation on August 22, Redding is 2-2 with a 2.73 ERA in six starts.
After the game, Jerry Manuel spoke very highly of Redding, telling reporters:
“Tim Redding‘s last two outings have been tremendous…that’s a good sign for us going forward.”
…Redding has definitely been solid over the past month, but his season up until then was a disaster…he had been removed from the rotation and his ERA was well above 6…
…on going forward, i would hope that they would seek more consistency even for a back-of-the-rotation starter such as Redding…
Tagged Tim Redding |
Prior to yesterday’s 3-2 win over the Nationals, David Wright told Anthony Rieber of Newsday that he still thinks about being hit in the head, telling Rieber:
“I think that it’s always going to be there…I don’t think that’s something where you get a couple at-bats and all of a sudden it goes away. I’m aware, it’s in the back of my head, but you get in the box and you get locked in and it’s just muscle memory from doing this so many times that your body just does it.”
…i can’t say i blame the guy…i think we would all be just a little worried after something like that…
Since returning from the disabled list, Wright is hitting .258 with two home runs and 13 RBI.
Wright says that he is symptom free and is hoping that his worries vanishes as he gets more at-bats.
For more on this, check out Rieber’s article.
